The Siren's Eyes (The Siren Legacy Book 2)

by Helen Scott

  Everything was starting to look the same. The wood panels were on fire, and the metal was glowing red. Where was she? She felt lightheaded, and her breath was coming in short bursts.

  Just a little further.

  She had to get out.

  Just keep moving.

  The smoke covered everything. She felt dizzy, or maybe the room was spinning. Collapsing, she didn’t have the strength to go any further.

  One more coughing fit shook her body before the blackness took her.

  Hal’s face was the first thing Thad saw when he opened his eyes. Dem’s was the second. He bolted up. Where was Cin? She should have been the first thing he saw.

  The movement made his head pound. That guy had knocked seven bells out of him.

  “Where’s Cin?” He needed to know she was safe and that Aster’s vision hadn’t come to pass.

  His brothers looked at each other, and his stomach dropped.

  “Where. Is. Cin?” he tried again.

  “Listen, man, the place went up in flames. I was barely able to get out of there myself. Plus the dryad almost caught fire, and Cin had gone off by herself. I don’t know where she is, but if she was still inside, then I’m afraid she’s gone, Brother.” Dem’s voice rang in his ears.

  “He’s right, Thad. No one could have survived that. The guy made a portal, and the house went up in flames.”

  Thad’s head felt like it was full of cotton. Nothing was making sense. The vision hadn’t come to pass. Cin should be alive.

  “Where’s Aster?”

  “We aren’t sure,” Hal said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Now, before you get pissed, remember we were all fighting. No one was paying attention to her since we thought she was passed out. Either way, she wasn’t where you left her when I was able to check.”

  “Okay . . .” Thad took a couple deep breaths, trying to clear his head. “We need to split up. Hal, go around the house to the right. I’ll go around to the left. Dem, get in the air and see what you can see. We cannot, under any circumstances, lose them both.”

  “I hear you, man, loud and clear, but you also need to prepare for the worst,” Dem said before taking off.

  He didn’t miss the pity that flashed in his brother’s eyes before he soared skyward. The down gust from his wings fanned the heat toward Thad, and he was hit with a wall of hot air. Now that he could see past Hal and Dem, he could see what they were talking about.

  The place was an inferno.

  Thad pushed himself to his feet and got moving. If there was even a chance that Cin was still alive, he needed to find her. He edged around the side of the farmhouse. There was nothing in sight.

  He called for her, screaming her name even as his lungs burned with smoke and heat from the fire. As he rounded the front of the house, Thad’s heart clenched. The beautiful, vivacious woman he’d fallen for had vanished and was probably dead. Right now, that hurt worse than any physical injury.

  As Thad saw Hal coming around the corner, Dem dropped down out of the sky.

  “I couldn’t see anything, Brother. I looked, but there’s nothing around, unless she went into the woods, but I can’t reason as to why she’d do that.”

  “Nothing from my side, either.” Hal rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish.

  “She’s got to be somewhere!” Panic constricted Thad’s chest. “I can’t abandon her.”

  “Thad?” a woman’s voice called. He recognized it, and for a split second, his heart stuttered, thinking it was Cin.

  It wasn’t.

  He was never that lucky.

  “Aster?” Thad rubbed the smoke from his eyes as he looked around for her, wincing as his hand went over fresh bruises.

  At least they hadn’t lost them both. Not that Cin was lost. He wasn’t giving up yet.

  “Oh, thank God!” A petite woman came running out from behind one of the cars parked in front of the house. If he hadn’t seen her in his vision, then he wouldn’t have recognized her. Her skin was covered in bruises and blood, which was also matted in her hair. The shining gold blonde that he’d seen in his vision was now a crusty reddish brown. The woman was hardly recognizable. She barreled into him like a freight train.

  “You’re okay. We’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. They might not have ever met in person before, but they knew each other.

  “Is she dead?” Aster sobbed into his chest.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t given up looking yet.” Thad had to swallow the knot in his throat. “These are my brothers Dem and Hal. They’ll take care of you for a minute.”

  Aster peeked out from Thad’s chest. “Okay. Just bring her back.” Her voice was hoarse, probably from the smoke.

  “Watch her,” Thad said, looking at his brothers.

  “No. You’re not going to poke around this burning house alone,” Dem said, staring him down.

  “The hell I’m not.”

  “Hal, watch the girl. I’ll go with Thad.”

  “Got her,” Hal said, opening his arms and giving Aster a bear hug.

  Thad took off up the porch steps before there was any more discussion. If there was any chance Cin was still alive, he had to get her out before the whole place came down. He prayed to the gods that he wasn’t too late.

  The smoke billowed out from the front door, but the fire hadn’t reached that side of the house yet. The two guards who had been knocked out earlier were still down.

  “Dem, we have to get them out of here!” Thad shouted over the crackling of the fire.

  “I’ve got this one.”

  Thad hauled the other guy over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and they carried them out to the front of the house, unceremoniously laying them back down in the dirt. He turned and sprinted back inside. The fire was closing in. Soon he wouldn’t be able to get in the front door. If this had been a normal-sized house, then it would have been hopeless already.

  He moved through the house, staying as low to the ground as he could. They found two other guards whom he and Cin had knocked out earlier.

  “Can you feel a pulse?” Dem called as he checked the guy Cin had taken out.

  Thad’s hand expertly went to the man’s wrist where his pulse should have been. Nothing. He kept holding on to the pulse point, not willing to give up. If these guys had died from smoke inhalation, then he knew there was a good chance that it was too late for Cin as well.

  “No!” he called back eventually.

  “Man, we’ve got to get out of here! This place is coming down any second!” Dem yelled as he started coughing. The smoke was getting to them both.

  “Not yet!”

  Thad pressed on even though his eyes were stinging, and breathing was becoming arduous. Forward—he had to keep moving forward even though there were flames in the hallway. Thad didn’t care. He needed to get Cin out. He couldn’t leave her in here to die.

  Dem was behind him suddenly.

  His brother’s thick arms gripped Thad around the chest and began hauling him backward.

  “I’m sorry, man, but I’m not letting either of us die in here!” Dem’s voice came from just behind his ear.

  Dying wasn’t what he wanted, but he wasn’t ready to give up, either. He tried to shrug out of his brother’s grip, but to no avail. Struggling harder, he almost got free, but Dem clenched his arms even tighter. Breathing was becoming challenging, and Dem’s iron hold wasn’t helping.

  Thad was still being pulled backward out of the hallway when he saw the blue hair on the floor. If it hadn’t been for a break in the flames, he never would have seen her.

  She was surrounded by fire.

  “She’s there!” Thad screamed. “Let me go, you sonofabitch!” Thad’s struggling increased tenfold. He was determined to get away. He should have known he didn’t stand a chance against Dem, though.

  “She’s gone, man! I’m sorry, but if the flames didn’t kill her, then the smoke already has. Now, stop fighting me and insulting our m
other. We are leaving whether you like it or not!”

  Dem hauled him off his feet, and they were moving back faster than Thad could struggle to get loose.

  “She was right there! You bastard!”

  “I’m sorry, Brother, but your life is more important to me.”

  They burst out onto the front porch then.

  “Hal, grab him!” Dem said as he began to fall, taking Thad with him.

  He felt Dem hit the wood of the porch, and as the impact loosened his grip, Thad made a break for it. Hal was right there, though. His brother didn’t let him get two steps before scooping him up. Dem may have been the tallest and most leanly muscular, but Hal was heftier. His barrel-chested brother was built more like a Viking.

  That didn’t mean he was going to give up. He struggled and writhed in his brother’s hold, using every trick he knew to try and get out.

  “Thad?” Aster’s voice made him go still.

  Hal put him down, knowing that Thad wouldn’t run off when Aster’s heart was about to be broken. He sank into a sitting position on the bottom porch step.

  He couldn’t look at her.

  He couldn’t even think about what this was going to do to her.

  “Aster . . . I . . . ”

  What could he say?

  “It’s okay.” Aster’s hand on his shoulder made him flinch. “It’s going to be okay.” She wrapped her delicate arms around him and squeezed for all she was worth.

  Tears choked him.

  She was dead.

  His chest felt like it was on fire. Pain radiated out of every inch of him. Nothing had ever hurt this bad before. Unbidden, a scream of grief tore from his throat as sobs began to shake his body. Thad tried to contain it at first, holding it in with every last ounce of strength he had. It didn’t work. The pain tore through every barrier he put up.

  He felt Aster hug him again, her small frame pressed against his side. Thad knew if he turned to her, then the tears would never stop.

  “Dem, if you jump him, I’ll jump her?”

  “Deal.”

  They didn’t hear it at first over the fire. It was only as the coughing got closer that Thad’s chest tugged. She had made it out? But then the cough sounded again.

  Masculine.

  Not Cin at all.

  His brief moment of hope was like the tide ebbing, and when it was crushed, the pain came roaring back.

  Aster started shaking next to him.

  “Don’t let him near me!” Her voice was shrill with fear.

  He couldn’t process what was going on around him. Aster was backing away from him, yelling at his brothers.

  “Keep him away!”

  “Who is he?” Hal’s baritone sounded low and calm.

  “He’s the one who tried to, or succeeded—who knows since I was unconscious—in harvesting my eggs. He wanted to get me knocked up so they would have a control for the experiment, see which baby got the gift of sight. He’s a monster!”

  Thad’s gaze shot up as her words speared through his grief. This man was at least partly responsible for why they were there, and for Cin’s death.

  Before he knew it, he was out of his sitting position and had the guy pinned to the ground. The only thing that stopped his fist from connecting with this guy’s face was that Dem or Hal had grabbed his arm as he pulled back to throw the punch.

  Thad was staring daggers at the dead-eyed bastard underneath him.

  “We’ll take him with us and put him in the cage. Figure out what to do with him later,” Hal’s voice sounded behind Thad.

  “I guess we’re taking anyone to the island now . . .” Dem muttered.

  “Thad, are you okay to jump yourself home?”

  “Yeah.” Thad straightened up.

  Dem came over and put his hand on the man’s shoulder.

  “I’m not leaving you here. So, you are going to have to jump out first. Also, I expect you to come over for dinner tonight.”

  “No. I’ll go home, but I’m not leaving.”

  Hal glared at him.

  “I’m not Alec. Yes, I’m going to have a drink, but I’m not going to destroy myself. Can you take care of Aster for a couple days?”

  “Sure thing. I’ll come by and check on you tomorrow.”

  Thad nodded before he jumped out.

  Chapter 26

  Something was dripping on Cin’s head. No, not just on her head, but all over her. She tried to roll over, but she was stuck.

  She cracked her eyes open and immediately slammed them shut again.

  The light hurt.

  Everything hurt.

  She couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t she breathe? She tried taking a deeper breath again. She could breathe, but it felt weird, like something was stabbing her in her shoulder blades. She tried to move away from it, but the sensation followed her. Her whole body felt like it was one giant bruise.

  She opened her eyes again.

  The sky was tinged with red, and it was raining. She was outside. Cin couldn’t remember anything past Thad planning the trip to the location they found through hacking the GPS, but after that, everything got fuzzy.

  Twisting her head from side to side, her neck cracked like she’d been stuck in the same position forever. Everything was tinged with red, but she could finally see why she couldn’t move. She was trapped under what looked like a fallen charred beam of wood. Everything around her was burned to a crisp. What the hell had happened? And how was she alive?

  Her muscles ached as she moved to push it off her. When it came to actually moving the thing, though, it was like it was made of cardboard. The thing flew into the air away from her. She’d given it a little shove. There was no way it should have moved like that.

  All she wanted to do was find Thad and go home. Home sounded beyond good right now.

  The world pressed in on her, everything fading to black for a moment.

  She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even twitch a finger.

  Then suddenly everything rushed back. She was standing in her apartment. How the hell did she just do the teleportation thing that Thad could do? It wasn’t like she was a supernatural being.

  Her legs gave out, and she ended up on her ass. Something was seriously wrong with her body.

  Had she been to a boot camp workout program and didn’t remember it? And where was that place that had burned down?

  She was beyond confused.

  There was a slight breeze coming from somewhere, making Cin cold. Her arms instinctively wrapped around herself even though her muscles screamed in protest at being used.

  She was naked.

  What the hell had happened? Nothing made any sense right now, and she didn’t have the energy or muscle power to do much about it. What she needed right now was a phone, but she was willing to bet that her phone was wherever her clothes were, which was nowhere near her.

  Cin pushed herself up into a kneeling position and crawled over to her bedroom. She had never been more grateful that she could be incredibly messy. There were clothes on the floor. She grabbed the very corner of whatever it was and pulled it toward her. A T-shirt. Perfect.

  After finding some pants and struggling to get them on, Cin pushed herself up to stand. Her legs quaked under her, but she stayed upright, which was a victory in itself.

  Once she was stable, she’d head to the shop and get Tony to call Thad. That was the only way she could think of to get ahold of him. She needed to be able to walk first. Not hard, right? It wasn’t like it was something she’d been doing her whole life or anything. Cin tentatively placed one foot in front of the other. She wished she could get in touch with Thad now. If she could talk to him, she was sure he’d help her figure out what was going on. It wasn’t like both of them could have memory loss, right?

  What if they both had memory loss? What if he was in the exact same situation as her? The thought made Cin’s stomach turn. She needed him to be the stable one right now because everything felt off.

  She didn’t
feel like she fit in her body anymore. Her skin felt too tight, and that stabbing pain she’d been feeling in her shoulders was getting worse.

  Cin desperately wished she could talk to Thad.

  The world pressed in on her again, and everything faded to black. This time she wasn’t as terrified as before. She still couldn’t move, but the blackness disappeared a moment later. She took a deep shuddering breath, only to be rewarded by the throbbing in her shoulders doubling.

  She didn’t know where she was. She’d never been there before. At least, not that she was aware of.

  The room was huge. A large open area with training equipment all around. Mats on the floor, treadmills, punching bags, the works.

  “Hey! I thought I killed you!”

  The voice sounded from across the room, echoing in the ample space. It sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she’d heard it.

  The red seeped further into her vision, coloring everything she saw, but instead of rose-colored glasses, it was anger that bubbled inside her.

  She was a pot that had been left on the stove too long, a kettle ready to boil. Every inch she moved toward the voice made her anger grow even more.

  “How the hell are you alive?” it called again, luring her closer.

  Something deep inside her wanted to reach out to the voice and hurt it. Badly. Cin tried to tamp it down, to keep the anger under control, but if she stopped moving toward the voice, then it was even worse. Static sounded in her ears, a roar that forced her onward.

  There was a cage in the back of the room. A prison cell. Inside was the man who was talking. Heat flared over her skin, forcing an involuntary shriek to escape her. When she looked at him, the anger almost overtook her. She focused on the concrete, mapping the tiny cracks and discoloration with her eyes.

  “You’re Herculesing it, aren’t you?”

  His voice almost brought her eyes to him again. She caught herself just in time, mentally kicking herself for not staying focused.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Cin muttered as she tried to quiet the pounding in her head.